Project
Ignite well-being!
The Dream Agency is an initiative to give people a positive impetus to realise their dreams.
When you live in an asylum center, it is sometimes harder work. For some it works when you are aware of the circumstances, the effect they have on your mind, their temporary nature and a focus on a new future. Others may need lots of outside activities.
In any case, it is good to be aware of your needs. We want to support you to get through this period as best as possible.
We organize several activities in the field of well-being and invite people, especially newcomers, for these activities on special events, as shown on the poster.
Our dream team
These activities can only be organized by a dream team. You can find them on the ‘About us’ page.
We are happy to cooperate with Pharos, the municipality of Nijmegen and the network ‘Wij zijn groen, gezond en in beweging Nijmegen’ (We are green, healty and moving Nijmegen).
Well-being
With Dream Agency, we aim to promote the well-being of asylum seekers (and others). We support people individually and we also organise meetings with group coaching (‘inner balance’), creative activities (‘self-expression’), focusing on mental well-being (e.g. yoga) and on health (e.g. on stress reduction and quitting smoking).
But what exactly is wellbeing and in what ways can we contribute to it? This question is easier asked than answered. There are many theories and models on well-being – and also on the broader concept of quality of life. The World Health Organisation defines the latter as an individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns.
We want to stay away from this definitional question further at this point and talk about how we pay attention to well-being.
It is about having mostly positive feelings. Of course, not always, because there are always setbacks, but well-being does not include just going through life gloomy.
Besides positive feelings, it is also about positive connections. Good and committed relationships with others, your loved ones. A sense of belonging and the feeling that you live for something, meaning.
Connecting with yourself is also essential. You consider yourself worthwhile. And that’s why you pay attention to self-care. A healthy lifestyle is part of well-being. Not only a healthy lifestyle, but also your health itself contributes to well-being.
You feel internally balanced. And your relationship with the environment is in balance. You do not hide but show yourself, including your feelings, your (cultural) backgrounds and who else you are. A good skill in self-expression is therefore important for your well-being.
You do not worry too much, but are rather optimistic about the future. You feel in control of your life and also have enough skills to make something of your life. Setbacks can happen, of course, but you are resilient enough to deal with them properly. They don’t upset you for a long time, but you see solutions or know how to accept setbacks in a good way.
At Dream Agency, we are working in various ways to promote wellbeing. We are already offering various activities and are going to broaden our programme in the near future so that we can offer support on all the themes mentioned above.
In this first meeting of the Ignite well-being series, we inventoried ideas and wishes of participants (asylum seekers): what do people need to improve their well-being?
We will continue this in subsequent meetings. We organize workshops that promote creativity and inner balance.
Because the first meeting was in Ramadan, we combined it with an iftar, because ‘celebrating’ is also a form of well-being.
